The Decision Of Purchasing Drones For The Purpose Of Local Law Enforcement

Drones In America And How They Infringe On The Fourth Amendment and Due Process Of The Law

In the article Drone On, Gretchen West addresses the possibilities for drones and her issues with FAA and the slow pace their taking to establish rules for drone operating. She begins with the history of drones. She discusses that drones were primarily use for the military and other government sectors like Homeland Security, until private companies started developing an interest in drones. Instead of helping in wars and watching our boarders, drones were now being used for farming and bridge inspection. Now drones are an international and multibillion dollar industry. Drones, are as a faster and safer way to do things like helping farmers with their crops or help filmmakers shoot amazing footage; drones will benefit everyone. Commercial drones

Still, drones are a form of invasion of privacy but used in moral awareness will keep fellow citizens safe. I think that law enforcement should use drones to overlook people who have previously broken the law or invaded someone’s privacy. Drones can help America protect its privacy by looking out for potential threats while not invading the innocent American lives. I think congress should consider that drones keep a tab on certain criminals who have committed dangerous crimes, to a certain degree.The Supreme Court cases shown in “Right to Privacy” cases were about personal decisions that invaded an individual’s privacy. Cases such as Kelley v Johnson, Roe v Wade and Griswold v Connecticut presented how the government was being controlling of an individual’s personal decision. For example, in the Griswold v Connecticut, a Connecticut law criminalized the encouragement or use of birth control. The 1879 law said if "any person who uses any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purposes of preventing conception shall be fined not less than forty dollars or imprisoned not less than sixty days." This case was not brought to the U.S.

In this case, when drones are unarmed and used for local law enforcement purposes, such as “search-and rescue mission, to monitor traffic and even with crowd control”, they become useful tools (Kouri). “Last week, a Predator B drone deployed from a North Dakota Air Force base provided surveillance that eventually helped local police arrest three man charged with stealing six cows from a local family” (Lee). This evidence proves that the drones can be used by police officers to track criminals.

"The thought of government drones buzzing overhead and constantly monitoring the activities of law –abiding citizens runs contrary to the notion of what it means to live in a free society" says senator Charles Grassley on a topic that is in very high controversy (Quattlebaum1).Having the sanctity of our own privacy in households and backyards is an entitlement that we all are gifted with, but many people are having that privacy tarnished with a new creation sweeping the country-Drones. Domestic use of drones is raising concerns about privacy and fourth amendment violations in many states and cities. Privacy is only one of the concerns of these drones.Many drones are found crashing into buildings and trees and are considered a huge safety hazard

Drones present a unique threat to privacy; they can be equipped with gigapixel cameras that can provide real-time video streams at ten frames per second, and some can track up to 65 targets at a distance of up to 65 miles. They can also be equipped with infrared cameras, heat sensors, GPS, motion sensors, and automated license plate readers; future drones could be equipped with facial recognition technology. The use of drones implicates significant Fourth Amendment interests and common law privacy rights, they can conduct high-resolution picture and video surveillance outdoors, and inside high-level windows, and through barriers such as fences, trees, and walls. Courts have held that individuals do not generally have Fourth Amendment rights with respect to aerial surveillance, including drones, as anyone could observe what is viewable from the air.

There is a wide variety of drones currently in use and being developed, most of which do not pose a threat to the privacy rights of citizens. In fact, there is a multi-million dollar industry in creating drones for hobbyist. These drones amount to nothing more than toys for adults (big boy toys). However, military contractors have developed drones that are specifically used for surveillance purposes. These are the drones that pose a real threat to the privacy rights of citizens.

There is an ongoing debate over local law enforcement’s ability to use domestic drones to aid in operations. Domestic drones or UAVs , Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, have the potential to carry out many tasks like surveillance or riot control. Imagine a scenario where there is a possible bomb threat. A drone could be used for the good to investigate the area instead of using law enforcement officer whose lives could potentially be in danger. On the other hand there is the issue of armed drones that could lead to the abuse of power.

A lot of the discussions we've had in class have led me to believe that in a few years, drones will become a normal part of our society. It will no longer be odd or a special occasion to have an Amazon drone drop a package off at our front door. People won't flip out when a drone affixed with a camera might accidentally fly into their backyard. On the contrary to that, if a drone is legitimately being used to spy on someone, those type of cases will be a lot more common.

According to Matt Kenyon (2017), “A good drone policy will clearly establish the purpose of using drones for law enforcement operations. Deviating from this purpose often predicts liability and PR issues for an agency.” The policy should address legislation about drone use, outline proper procedures, establish accountability measures, declare how long the department will preserve any images or video footage captured with drones, and determine how much surveillance is allowed (Kenyon, 2017). While these policies are determined by state agencies and state governments, not federal governments, they tend to be similar in substance state to state. On the contrary, the policies regulating civilians’ use of drones differ enormously state to state.

But when you are flying it around the police station they will notice and if it gets to close then they are goners because a drone can hack or take photos of private information of the officers or FBI. When airplanes take off doesn’t have to worry about anything unless something is wrong with the plane. Drones can endanger the airplanes that the public is using because the drone could have a bomb or something worse and so they can’t take private information they will be always on top of it unless it’s out of their hands like for example “on Tuesday, January 20,2015, a drone carrying methamphetamine crashed in Mexico near the US border. The drone was transporting more than six pounds of crystal meth when it crashed in a supermarket parking lot in the Mexican city of Tijuana. According to the DEA, drones are becoming a common means to transport drugs over the border.” August 2013- A drone capturing footage for a production company abruptly tilted and crashed into the crowd at the Great Bull Run (a day of music, drinking-and actual bull runs) in Virginia. “four or five spectators suffered minor injuries.” “March 13,2016- A small UAV crashed on the grounds spotted its flashing lights as it approached in the early morning hours. The craft was carrying three cell phones in a plastic bag.” “A small UAV crashed into the glass door to a balcony on the 17th floor of an oceanfront condominium building in Marco Island, Florida. The incident triggered a discussion of the need to ban drones, though no immediate action was taken.” “Small UAV slammed into and broke a dining room window in a home in the Capitol Hill section of Seattle, Washington.” The punishment for the individual will be a

The fourth amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. In the article, Drone in U.S. Airspace, it states “Because of their wide-reaching surveillance capabilities, however even unarmed drones could threaten personal privacy and civil liberties”. It means that drones are being use inappropriately by both the gov’t and civilians without the proper paperwork. Also, the government uses drones to look inside homes and they are doing it without permission. For

Drones and other flying devices may become the future innovation and what will determine how well crops are growing among other things. But they fail to realize the importance of privacy and the invasion such devices could cause. According to the article “Do Domestic Drones Violate the Right to Privacy,” states that the “the domestic use of drones is raising concerns about privacy as well as potential Fourth Amendment violations.” If drones are flying overhead watching your every moment, that violates your right of freedom as you are not being allowed to do what you want without being tracked down every second. “The thought of government drones buzzing overhead and constantly monitoring the activities of law-abiding citizens runs contrary to the notion of what it means to live in a free society,” Charles Grassley of Iowa states. To remain free, one must be allowed to see without being

While these drones easily have more benefits than flaws, the invasion of privacy is the sole serious issue of these mechanisms that make them so controversial. Because we today, are constantly being watched by the government whether it’s in the grocery story, airports, the streets, or even through our electronic devices at home, “the use of drones for specific missions needs to be carefully regulated and some applications should be approved by the courts” (Bommarito). However, I am not arguing against the beneficial use of drones in the areas of society such as the military or national banks to watch for criminal activity. But like other gadgets used to collect information in law enforcement, a warrant should and needs to be issued to use drones domestically. We as Americans should be granted our freedoms and natural rights, by having our privacy, especially in our homes if not out in public, and be allowed to simply function and live in our country without being under some form of government surveillance

New drone technology is so advanced that it is alarming. Drones the size of insects exist, others that are capable of staying aloft in the air for thirty hours at a time, can fly at forty-five miles per hour, and that can view a property from 40,000 feet in the air (Feeney). Drones will only advance in technology, and privacy concerns will only grow without federal regulation. The Fourth Amendment states that citizens of the United